Syria has no WMDs - Arab League

Syria has no weapons of mass destruction but it and other Middle East countries have the right to acquire defensive measures against Israel's nuclear capabilities, Arab League chief Amr Musa has said.

07 Jan 2004 08:33 GMT

Musa said Israel is the only country in the Middle East with WMDs

Musa also took a swipe at the United States, saying it was wrong to assume Syria had nuclear weapons without proof.

"Syria does not have weapons of mass destruction or nuclear weapons," he said. "We can not presume Syria has nuclear weapons just like that, that is wrong."

"There is just one country with WMDs in the Middle East -Israel. And in that case, perhaps in the near future, other countries will try - and it is their right - to protect themselves against such weapons."

Musa was speaking in an interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television on Wednesday,

Denying charges

Syria denies US charges that it already has weapons of mass destruction.

But in a British newspaper interview on Tuesday, Syrian President Bashar al-Asad said it was natural for Syria to find means to defend itself against Israeli aggression and that WMDs were readily available in the world.

During a trip to Turkey, al-Asad also called for a ban on WMDs in the Middle East.

Musa said that Israel was creating a "huge and serious security imbalance" by being the only country in the region to possess such weapons.

Israel occupies the Golan Heights which it seized from Syria in 1967 and in October, Israeli forces bombed an alleged training camp for Palestinian resistance fighters near Damascus.